The Czech Republic, who were humbled in their opening game against Russia, took on Greece at the Municipal Stadium in Wroclaw, Poland in search of their opening win in the tournament.

It did not take long before the Czech fans were celebrating as they took the lead in just the third minute of the game. Veteran player Tomas Hubschman unlocked the Greek defense with a pinpoint pass for Petr Jiracek, and Czech midfielder had little difficulty beating Kostas Chalkias with his left foot.

No sooner than the Czech fans’ cheers had died down, they were once more on their feet celebrating their second goal of the game. A drilled cross from Gebre Selassie was dealt with poorly by Greek goalkeeper Chalkias, who only managed to palm the ball into the path of the arriving Vaclav Pilar and the ball was bundled into the back of the net off of the knee of Pilar.

Chalkias’ nightmare start to the game came to an early end as he walked off with an injury to be replaced by Michalis Sifakis, who was almost immediately called upon to make a good diving save to prevent Tomas Rosicky from extending the Czechs’ lead.

Despite being down 2-0, and in desperate need of at least one goal before half time, the Greece team looked lethargic for the rest of the half, failing to trouble the Czech defense with any meaningful attacks. The closest Greece came to pulling a goal back was through Giorgos Fotakis, who headed the ball in at the far post from a cross, only for the linesman to raise his flag for offside and ensure the score remained unchanged at the interval.

Instead of pressing hard to get back into the game in the second half, Greece was lucky to not be further behind when Selassie’s shot found its way to the feet of Milas Baros but the striker couldn’t connect properly with the ball and wasted a golden opportunity.

A lifeline was gifted the Greeks, however, when a cross was spilled by Czech goalkeeper, Petr Cech, following a mix up with Tomas Sivok, leaving Fanis Gekas with the easiest of finishes to give Greece their first goal.

The goal seemed to spur on Greece who was now in control of the game, but a combination of bad finishing and a lack of a final pass saw the Greeks spurn a host of chances as the game moved into the final 15 minutes.

Despite doing much better in the second half, Greece was unable to find a much needed equalizer, leaving them in the precarious position of needing to beat the strong Russia side in their last group game if they are to have any chance of qualifying for the knockout stages. The Czechs on the other hand are in a much better position going into their last game against Poland and, providing they can replicate their form from the first half of this game, will fancy their chances of qualifying from the group.

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Thanks to a late goal from the talented Mario Gomez, Germany was able to snag the victory against Portugal with 17 minutes left in the match, leaving them tied at the top of the Group B standings with Denmark. In a match that brought a lot of chances from both sides, Germany were the only ones to capitalize, which leaves Portugal in a tricky situation at the bottom of the table with the equally unlucky Holland.

The match was heated from the beginning, with the first shot on goal coming a minute into the game off of Germany’s Gomez, which was easily saved by Portugal’s Rui Patricio. The German fans were also showing their emotions towards the opposing team by throwing empty water bottles at Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo as he was trying to setup a corner kick in the fourth minute.

Germany’s lineup for the match came as a surprise, as seven of the starting players are teammates on the Bundesliga side Bayern Munich. This seems to have had an impact on the match, since Germany was able to create many chances in the offensive half throughout the entire match. Portugal came out on top according to the stat sheet, getting seven of their eleven shots on goal compared to the four out of twelve shots that Germany were able to create.

The first half of the match finished without any changes on the scoreboard, giving a sense that the match would end with a goalless draw. This would play out well for Holland, giving them a better chance of climbing back from their 1-0 loss to Denmark earlier in the day.

The second half came with just as much intensity as the first. Both Germany and Portugal’s offense were playing creative soccer, which formed many chances for both sides. Portugal managed to test the German goalkeeper Manuel Neur more with several attempts on the goal.

Germany was finally able to capitalize in the last 20 minutes of the match after a ball was crossed into the box, deflected off a Portugal player, and then found its way to Mario Gomez. Gomez was able to head the ball past the goalkeeper into the opposite corner to give Germany the 1-0 lead. Mario Gomez was struggling to finish any of his shots throughout the second half, and was about to be substituted for Miroslav Klose before he managed to head in the game-winning goal.

No matter how many attempts the Portuguese had to tie the game up in the remaining 10 minutes of play, they were unable to break down the German defense. Germany faces off against Holland next on Wednesday, while Portugal faces Denmark that same day.

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France and England shared the points in Ukraine as the two Group D rivals cancelled each other out in a rather dull affair. Joleon Lescott’s header in the first half gave England the lead before Samir Nasri equalized almost immediately for France. Laurent Blanc’s men had most of the pressure in the second half, but Roy Hodgson’s new look side-defended solidly and was probably pleased with the end result.

It was a slow start to a previously classic encounter, England met France for the last time the Three Lions were in the Euro’s but despite scoring in the opening five minutes of their last two major tournaments, Roy Hodgson’s men were happy enough to sit back and counter in the early exchanges. Samir Nasri was seeing the most of the ball and he had the first real chance when he shot wide of Joe Hart’s near post from the edge of the area.

But it was England who probably should have opened the scoring, a thrusting run from the midfield saw James Milner get on the end of Ashley Young’s pass but the Manchester City midfielder slid the ball wide after rounding Hugo Lloris. Yohan Cabaye immediately tested Hart again at the other end but the early exchanges had been fairly even.

But despite the game being played at a slow pace England made the breakthrough on the half-hour mark as Joleon Lescott headed in his first goal for his country from Steven Gerrard’s free-kick. France had perhaps shaded the opening thirty minutes but England’s opener gave them the impetus to attack a French side whose defense looked shaky. But it was the team in blue who almost equalized from their own free-kick, Alou Diarra got on the end of Nasri’s cross and made Hart make a save, before heading the re-bound just wide of the post.

It was a warning sign for England of what the French could do given the chance, the goal stretching the game more and more as France tried to find a response. They soon found it after some neat passing through midfield and it was Samir Nasri who finally beat his City team-mate Joe Hart at the near post. Nasri had looked the biggest threat to England’s defense, time and time again finding space between the midfield and defence.

England managed to get to half-time at 1-1 as France were very much in the ascendancy after the equalizer. It was more of the same after the break as France dominated possession and England was once again happy to sit back and use the likes of Oxlade-Chamberlain and Young to counter the pressure. England did get forward eventually and the referee denied them a free-kick in a good position when Steven Gerrard was clearly brought down on the edge of the French penalty area.

There wasn’t a lot to shout about as the game reached the final 25 minutes, England were still happy to allow France to come at them, but Les Blues couldn’t do anything to break down the water-tight England defense. The French passing game was easy on the eye but wasn’t producing any productivity in the penalty area, Joe Hart only being tested from set-pieces and long range efforts.

England was growing frustrated at France’s possession game, and more so at the referee who seemed reluctant to give England any sort of decision. Roy Hodgson was the first to mix things up with just over ten minutes remaining, Jordan Henderson and Jermain Defoe replacing Scott Parker and Oxlade-Chamberlain respectively.

But it was still France on top, Nasri saw a shot deflected wide before Cabaye also had an effort deflected out from the resulting corner. The game was becoming very stretched and as France looked for a winner, England’s counter attacking tactics came more into play. Laurent Blanc responded to Hodgson’s changes and introduced Hatem Ben Arfa and Marvin Martin to add some more energy with five minutes remaining in Donestk.

But the final few minutes passed by without any real drama, England held off France’s final spell of pressure as the two favourites to progress from Group D sharing a point each.

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After the drama that came out of Poland and Greece’s opening day match, Russia and the Czech Republic had a lot to measure up to in their first match of Euro 2012. Russia was able to come out on top with a 4-1 thrashing of the Czech Republic, which took them to the top of the group standings after the first day of play in the tournament and sent Czech down to the very bottom.

With rain coming down on the players at the Stadion Miejski, both teams started the game off very lively and positive. The Czech Republic held possession throughout the beginning of the first half, while Russia threw all their effort into set pieces and their counterattack.

It did not take too long for Russia to finally capitalize on the attack. Konstantin Zyryanov crossed the ball into the box in the 15^th minute, which Aleksandr Kerzhakov headed directly into the far post. This then went straight to Alan Dzagoev, who cleaned up the rebound that bounced right to him in front of the Czech Republic goal and gave Russia the 1-0 lead.

Nine minutes later, Russia came again on the counterattack to get their second goal. After Czech player Jaroslav Plasil lost possession in the midfield, Andrei Arshavin placed a perfect pass onto the boot of Roman Shirokov, who easily chipped the ball over the hesitant Czech goalkeeper into the back of the net to increase the score 2-0.

Russia’s deadly counterattack continued to break down the shaky Czech defense throughout the end of the first half; these attacks began with the talented Arshavin, who always seemed to be in control of the situation. However, many of these chances ended at the feet of Kerzhakov, who seemed unable to finish plays the entire match.

The Czech Republic began to show signs of life at the end of the first half; but, just like their opponent, they were unable to capitalize on their chances. This offensive mindset continued for the Czech Republic into the second half, where their efforts finally showed some reward in a goal scored by Vaclav Pilar. Pilar received a beautiful pass from Plasil, and then managed to get around Russian goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev to put the ball into the practically empty net. With the score only 2-1, it seemed as though the game was not going to end as it was expected to.

The goal from Pilar seemed to be a game changer, since the following several minutes played after the goal made Russia appear a very average team. The Czech Republic found their purpose, while the Russians tried to regain their footing.

With Czech beginning to throw almost every man behind the ball on the attack to get the equalizer, Russia was left with even more chances on the counter. However, Kerzhakov broke down his own team’s offense by sending his shots too wide or directly into the goalkeeper’s hands.

Kerzhakov was finally substituted in the minute 73 for Roman Pavlyuchenko, who Russian manager Dick Advocaat hoped would be able to help finish at least one of the many counter attempts that his team kept having. Six minutes later, Pavlyuchenko fed a beautiful pass to Dzagoev, who shot the ball past Petr Cech for his second goal of the night and gave Russia the 3-1 lead. Three minutes later, on another counter, Pavlyuchenko managed his way around four Czech defenders. He shot from 15 yards away, which got by the Czech goalkeeper to increase the lead to the final score of 4-1.

The more times the Czech’s pushed on the offensive, the more opportunities Russia had to capitalize on their deadly counterattack. This somewhat comfortable win brought Russia to the top of the group standings and sent the Czech Republic to the bottom. With the outcomes of the match between Poland and Greece, every team has a chance of surviving the group stages and making it to the quarterfinals.

Russia is set to play against Poland next Tuesday, while the Czech Republic ready to face Greece that same day.

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New York, U.S.A. – Sirius XM Radio has announced that it will offer live coverage of the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly known as Euro 2012, offering play-by-play broadcasts of every match to listeners nationwide.

Sirius XM subscribers will have access to both English and Spanish-language broadcasts, provided by ESPN Radio and ESPN Deportes Radio, from the Group Stage matches starting Friday, June 8, through the Final on Sunday, July 1.

English-language broadcasts will air on Sirius channel 92 and XM channel 207. When two matches are being played simultaneously, the second game will air on ESPN Xtra, Sirius XM channel 85.

Listeners will get Spanish-language broadcasts of most matches. Those games can be heard on ESPN Deportes Radio, SiriusXM channel 149.

Euro 2012 play-by-play can also be heard on the Sirius XM Internet Radio App for smartphones and other mobile devices and online at SiriusXM.com.

Euro 2012 will take place in eight host cities in Poland and Ukraine, with the champion being determined in a one match final in Kiev on July 1. A total of 16 national teams – the two host nations and 14 other qualifiers – from around Europe participate in the tournament with the winner gaining automatic entry in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. Euro 2012 will feature Poland, Greece, Russia, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Croatia, Ukraine, Sweden, France and England.

Soccer fans also get in-depth daily soccer talk throughout the tournament and all year long on Sirius channel 92 and XM channel 207. The Football Show, with hosts John Harkes, Ray Hudson, Charlie Stillitano and Neil Barnett, airs weekday mornings (7:00-9:00 am ET). Listeners can also hear Men in Blazers, hosted by Michael Davies and Roger Bennett (Mondays and Fridays, 9:00 am ET). SiriusXM’s soccer lineup also features several Talk Sport programs, the popular British-based sports talk network featuring some of the U.K.’s best radio hosts and former soccer stars, including former Manchester United and Tottenham forward Alan Brazil as well as Liverpool striker Stan Collymore.

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After an entire game of attack and tension, France reached its goal of a spot at the European Football Championship 2012 by tying with Bosnia Herzegovina in the minute 77, by a penalty.

During the first half of the match, the Bosnian team showed an incredible counterattack, putting a lot of pressure on France while maintaining resistance on their own front.

France has already won two Eurocup titles; first in 1984 in France, and then in 2000 in Belgium and The Netherlands.

In the first half of the game, 39 minutes in, the Bosnian team scored the first goal of the game by Edin Dzeko. France’s defense remained strong, but it needed an alternative for the pass to reach for the goal. On the second half of the game, France showed an incredible pressure, not stopping and making several goal attempts, attacking continuously the Bosnian goalkeeper.

Bosnia and Herzegovina under manager Safet Sušić was classifying for the victory but on the 77th minute, France scored a penalty by Nasri, tying with their opponents. Bosnia Herzegovina did not show the same energy in the second half of the game. On the contrary, France reacted to the first half, regrouped and started to attack constantly.

The end of the match was a positive results for the French team, placing them inside the Eurocup. The Euro 2016 hosting has already been given to France.

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